ING: Afe Babalola Misfired.

Canticles….

So, what is the hope we have now that this democracy will not be truncated again?

Truncate? Who or what is going to truncate our democracy? Are you hearing rumours from the barracks and cantonments?

Far from that. Our soldiers have been born again. Old things have passed away. I am referring to the suggestion from that elder statesman and respected old lawyer, now a private University proprietor, Chief Afe Babalola, who in his deep wisdom, has suggested that we should suspend this transition plan and settle for another Interim National Government (ING). Is that not worrisome?

(pouts his lips). That should not be a source of worry at all. It is his own personal opinion. Can you not see that it did not trigger a sustained public discussion? Can you not se that it is B.I.D suggestion?

What does that mean?

It is a Brought-in -Dead suggestion. The Baba misfired. I think there is something that goes wrong with lawyers when they get very old. That was how the other day another old lawyer, Chief Robert Clarke, with all his supposed learnedness, said we should suspend the democracy and allow soldiers to take over and stablise the polity. I could not understand why such a senior lawyer could offer such a misleading suggestion.

That is the same reaction I have for Babalola’s ING suggestion. I wonder why that idea occurred to him. The ING we had under late Chief Ernest Shonekan, was a pure case of child of necessity. It wa a military arrangement, so most of the package was by military fiat. So in a full blown democracy, how are we going to regress into Interim Government? Just how will it work and for how long? There is no doubt it will be a rich recipe for political chaos and collapse of state.

Or could that be what the Americans heard and started predicting   the collapse of the Nigerian state?

Don’t mind America think tank pessimists. They have always predicted that Nigeria will collapse. They did that in 2005.seventeen years after, Nigeria is still waxing strong.  They have been predicting that Nigeria will fail and collapse. But the nation is still standing, yet they won’t stop their false prophecy.

Have you forgotten that Carl Maier, a Briton, was even more declarative when he wrote a book and titled it: This House Has Fallen: Nigeria in Crisis . That was over 20 years ago. Nigeria is still standing.

You know Robert Isaac Clarke had a British father, Is there any connection between what the West thinks and wishes Nigeria and the outbursts of Clarke et al?

I dint think there is any connection. But even if there is, how doyou now link Chef Afe Babalola with the ill wish of the west for Nigeria? Babalola is a full local born from Ekiti. So how does he think an Interim Government will help us? Who has it ever helped anyway? What was the impact of the 83 days of the wingless bee of Shonekan’s ING? Did he record any quotable quote?

So how can a respected elder statesman now want to return us to Egypt?

So what will happen to INEC or even the National Assembly or the sub national governments? Did he realise that will take us all back to point origin? And what would be the guaranty that we will ever come out of that and that even if we do, it will be reassuring and helpful in the task of nationhood?

My brother, the questions are many. The answers are few. I think Baba truly misfired. He does not seem to have remembered how complex the Nigerian state is. It is not like running Afe Bablola University.

But think of it, Is Nigeria really working? Are we making good progress even in the democratic enterprise? How do you explain that a nomination form will sell at N100 million? How are aspirants expected to raise such money? Is that not why there is so much desperation to get power? Is that not why there will be so much graft and greed when they get into power? Who will spend N100 million to collect form, spend ten times or more of that to run a campaign and get into office and then be kind to the treasury? Is it not common sense that such elected officials will daily rape the till?

Hmmm, but you called our democracy an enterprise. An enterprise is a profit making outfit. So it must generate money. In any case, must they all come from the APC? There are many other political parties which are charging much more friendlier prices for their forms. The business of participatory democracy in a large country like Nigeria cannot be for the financially faint-hearted. It is a money-guzzling engagement   There is no pretence about that.

Are you implying that democracy is now an exclusive preserve of the rich and very rich only?

Well, I did not say so. But it is like a war. The front liners have to spend huge, while the rest of the crowd will have to do the clapping and the cheering.

Hmmmm, hope of relief, is far for the ordinary man..